Friday, October 21, 2011

Sorry for the lateness which made the Mid-Day Matinee slide into mid-evening, folks! But here it is, the end of the Amazing Aragonés Week! (I made it extra-long to make it up to you because I love you folks!)

"Cain's Game Room" from House of Mystery #228 (December 1974-January 1975), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"Room 13" from House of Mystery #190 (January-February 1971), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"A Tour of the House of Mystery" from House of Mystery #117 (August-September 1974), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés
(Click picture to location location location-size)

Today's Special Model-Building, Famous World War Flying Ace Bonus! The perfect antangonist for that Red Baron model I showed you yesterday...Snoopy and His Sopwith Camel! (He must keep this thing in an hangar under his doghouse.) I actually had and built this model as a tiny bull, and bull-lieve me, this was a lot of fun! It was bright yellow with a working propeller powered by a rubber band, and it came with "thought balloons" that you could insert into a hole in Snoopy's mouth so you could make him "say" different things, including some blank stickers on which you could write your own dialogue. "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!" Snoopy was oft-heard to utter.

Ad from House of Mystery #189 (November-December 1970)

Here's some photographs from the internet (copyright not me) of the box and the original unassembled model kit (this one is in red rather than yellow plastic:

Splash pages from House of Mystery #189 (November-December 1970), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"Cain's Game Room" from House of Mystery #196 (November 1971), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"Witch's Tails" from House of Mystery #252 (May-June 1977), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"Page 13" from House of Mystery #177 (November-December 1968), script by Joe Orlando, pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

Special Model to End All Models Bonus: It's the krazy kar that had all of Europe laffing..the Red Baron! Or, as I like to call it, the Kaisermobile! ("Quick, Heinz, to the Kaisermobile!") I like to think that on weekends, Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes tooled around in this doing donuts in Stalag 13, until Colonel Hogan and his wacky crew put bananas smuggled in through their secret tunnels into the tailpipes. When questioned about this incident, Oberfeldwebel H. G. Schultz has gone on record declaring that he knew nothing.

Ad from House of Mystery #174 (May-June 1968)

Tomorrow: the natural counterpart to the Red Baron model! (And I actually had and built tomorrow's model, folks!) But first, a handy hobby hint you should follow when making your models. As long as they're all made of clear plastic. Cap's Hobby Hints, everybody!

"Cap's Hobby Hints" from House of Mystery #167 (June 1967), by Henry Boltinoff

Splash page from House of Mystery #195 (October 1971), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"Cain's Game Room" from House of Mystery #181 (July-August 1969), script, pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"Cain's Game Room" from House of Mystery #186 (May-June 1970), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"Room 13" from House of Mystery #185 (March-April 1970), pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

Today's bonus crime-against-humanity plastic model kit!: sure, it was a jaunty Herb Alpert instrumental number and a chain of middling taco restaurants, but this caricature of the standard comedy Mexican and his jaunty jalopy is about as politically correct as the Frito Bandito, who we ran out of town with both guns blazing, still screaming about his delicious salty corn chips. Geez, DC, what's next...jokes about the Chinese? (Later in this issue: jokes about the Chinese.)

As from House of Mystery #181 (July-August 1969)

Tomorrow!: A way-out plastic wacky model kit that evokes the hilarity and hi-jinks of the Second Battle of Ypres! Liner notes by Robert Graves, who advises you to put the decals on carefully to keep them from ripping!

Monday, October 17, 2011

I don't really have a clever post for you tonight, so let's just gawk in amazement and horror at The Pantsuit of Evil!!!Caveat: "The Pantsuit of Evil" may not be the original name of the story.

Panels from "The Roots of Evil!" in House of Mystery #176 (September-October 1968), script by Marv Wolfman, pencils and inks by Jack Sparling

AIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE! It's eeeeevil!

How evil is it? So evil that the colorist goes insane and can't face up to it by page two.

Later on, she changes into a little something from the Gwen Stacy's Signature Collection (available at Kmart near the Brooklyn Bridge), but it's too late...the pantsuit has already driven them all insane!

Even a friendly visit from Swamp Thing cannot drive out the memory of the pantsuit of evil!

The Mid-Day Matinee this week, all week: Sergio Aragonés! He's the MAD master of marginalia, art guru of Groo, and creator of his own brand-new comic from those crazy cats at Bongo (you really should be picking it up!)...but this week, as we fear gear up for Halloween, let's look at his creepy, kooky, altogether ooky work for DC's House of Mystery: the silent gag panels of "Cain's Game Room" and the gleefully ghoulish activity page "Room 13!" Lock your doors and turn on all the lights...because it's Sergio Aragonés Week!

"Cain's Game Room" from House of Mystery #176 (September-October 1968), script by Joe Orlando, pencils and inks by Sergio Aragonés

"Room 13" from House of Mystery #226 (August-September 1974), by Sergio Aragonés

Special sniffing-model glue bonus!: The first in a series of ads for politically-incorrect what-were-you-thinking-1960s model automobile kits: the dubiously pop-cultured hot rod model car of Erwin Rommel, Commander of the 7th Panzer Division Afrika Korps in World War II! (Apparently, although it's not in any history books I checked, he was a creepy skeleton!) Now you can yell to him: Rommel! You magnificent bastard! I built your car!